Anger Into Action - The Election Autopsy

Parliamentary politics has failed us. Dishonest, deceiving, morally bankrupt political leaders have failed us. A billionaire-backed, biased media has failed us. With the election of Boris Johnson, the furthest right wing of the establishment has been empowered. The country has become more divided. The country has become less kind.

I have always taken pride in calling myself British. I thought that it was positive that whereas previous generations of my family were quick to refer to themselves as English, I myself felt part of a larger, more inclusive community. I, perhaps naively, dreamed that one day my kids, or my kids’ kids, would call themselves European before British. The last three years of discourse in this country have made it abundantly clear that that will not be the case. A view of the voting maps from this election shows that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are tearing away from the majority of English voters.

Perhaps another Scottish independence referendum is now on the horizon. A hard Brexit in January now looks more likely than ever and should that happen the economic and political turmoil that will be felt in Northern Ireland is yet to be fully understood. A dormant political rupture is likely to spark back to life as those in Northern Ireland are torn between their British nationality and their European identity.

Maybe after the next five years the British identity will not be what I think it is today. In a union that is currently anything but united, I may not be able to call myself British in a meaningful way. The fractured politics of this island have not gone away with Johnson’s victory.

This is not about left or right. This is not about leave or remain, or old and young, or urban and rural. There were Tory members that stood against the lies and deceit that Johnson has peddled. There were Labour members that voiced a preference for Johnson over their own party leader. There were voters who saw Johnson as the lesser of two evils, there were those who saw no good choice for any of us, and there were those who fell for the lies. There were others who saw the lies and voted anyway. There were those that wanted this. This about standing up to them. This is about right and wrong.

In my lifetime, parliamentary politics has never represented me. I was too young to remember the meteoric rise of Tony Blair’s New Labour, and their betrayal of the platform they ran on. But I grew up in a world overshadowed by an illegal war that killed 500,000 Iraqi civilians, 179 British soldiers, and that continues to have far-reaching consequences in the collapse of Iraq and ISIS-inspired attacks across Europe. In 2010, I was too young to vote. I did, however, listen closely to the Liberal Democrats’ promises of scrapped tuition fees and a strong commitment to Europe. In 2012, at 18 years old, I joined the first cohort of university students hit with a £9,000 fee and watched the Lib Dems back a Tory government intent on scapegoating the EU as a cause of their own failings. I voted Remain in the referendum, and I lost. I voted Labour in 2017, and again yesterday. Again, I lost. The figures would suggest that my entire generation lost.

But we were not voting for a party yesterday. We were voting for an opportunity. An opportunity to show that alternatives to the current state of affairs were possible. I don’t, and never did, believe that Jeremy Corbyn had all the answers. In fact, there was much about the current Labour movement that felt very problematic. But I do firmly believe that it would have been a better option than putting the racist, classist, Islamophobic, misogynistic, homophobic, climate-denying, self-interested, deadbeat father with very suspect links to foreign actors in charge.

Boris Johnson stands against everything I believe in. I do not extend that feeling to his party; I believe that many Conservative voters and members want the same things I do, even if their approach to achieving them is different. That is fine. The capacity to debate the solutions to problems is key in any democracy. But with the cynical, deliberately fraudulent campaign run by Johnson and his media team, seemingly lifted unedited from the Donald Trump playbook, the current Tory leadership has demonstrated its contempt for the public on all sides of the political spectrum.

Like the Liberal Democrat betrayal in 2010, like the New Labour betrayal in 2003, like every political administration that I have lived through, the establishment of 2019 has demonstrated it will do what needs to be done to keep its stranglehold on the power of this country just firm enough to keep us quiet. It has no place for us in its plan.

Voting is one opportunity for the public to exercise their rights. It is a fundamental right and one that we must use whenever we are given the chance. But it is only one opportunity.

To those who voted yesterday in the hopes of making a difference to the lives of the most vulnerable, to those who feel that that possibility is now gone, now is the time to prove that the personal is political. Now is the time to show what kindness, togetherness, solidarity really is. Now is the time to live in a way that makes the world a better place.

Continue to expose the lies of the elite. Protest every policy that will make our lives harder. Fight for every inch of ground for those who do not have a voice. Fight for the homeless, fight for the families on food stamps, fight for the immigrants who remain in limbo, fight for those poorer, more vulnerable, and more in-need than yourselves. Fight for what is right.

Volunteer for local organisations that make a difference in your community. Reach out to friends, neighbours, community members. Show solidarity with disadvantaged groups. Join the chorus of voices calling for real change to tackle climate catastrophe. Stand up and be counted when others’ rights are threatened, because we are all that we have. Challenge those that want to divide us. Show what it means to be open-minded, be welcoming, be kind.

I want to live in a society where people of different religions, ethnicities, sexualities, classes, and genders can all feel welcome. I want to live in a society that does not define itself by what it is in opposition to, but by what it believes in. I want to live in a society that values its local communities, and still faces outwards to embrace the big wide world. I want to live in a society I can feel proud of. No political party can do that for me.

When the outside seems to get uglier every day, make your inside beautiful.

It’s the only thing we can do.

I want to be proud to be British again. Together, we can make that possible.